You Can Watch Movies At The UA Midway Theater This Weekend

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — The UA Midway theater in Forest Hills opened its doors on Friday for the first time in over a year, marking the official reopening of all Regal theater locations in New York City.

Last October, Cineworld, which operates the Regal Cinemas theater at 108-22 Queens Boulevard and nine other theaters across the city, announced it would indefinitely suspend operations at all 543 of its national theaters due to revenue losses amid the pandemic.

But last month, Regal began gradually reopening locations to moviegoers across the country, including their ten theaters across New York City, all of which are open as of May 14, including the Forest Hills location.

“I thought they were shutting their doors for good, so this is such wonderful news,” local resident Christina Gennaro told the Forest Hills Times, noting that the Midway theater, which has been operating in Forest Hills since 1942 is part of the “living history” of the neighborhood.

At the end of February, citing New York’s continually dropping COVID positivity rates, Governor Andrew Cuomo gave the go-ahead for the city’s movie theaters to open at the beginning of March.

The announcement came after movie theaters were unexpectedly cut from New York's phase four reopening last summer, and then not included in the state's October reopening plan.

Since March, theaters across the state have begun to reopen with 25-percent capacity limits, with up to 50 people per screening, assigned seating, mandatory masks, and enhanced air filtration standards, per New York’s guidelines.

According to their website, Regal has incorporated additional COVID-safety protocols into their reopening plans, including hand sanitizer stations, extra air circulation throughout the auditoriums, and contactless purchase options for tickets and concessions through the Regal mobile app.

On opening day in Forest Hills, tickets were on sale at UA Midway for more than two-dozen movie showings, including screenings of “Tom & Jerry,” “Godzilla vs. Kong,” “Spiral: SAW” and more.

Moviegoers are also now able to reserve tickets in advance for movies premiering later this summer like “Cruella,” and “The Quiet Place Part II.”